Saturday, June 19, 2010

"Who is in charge of stopping the oil leak and the cleanup in the Gulf of Mexico -- BP or the Obama administration? If you have a hard time answering the question, it probably is because the president has told us the 'buck stops' with him and officials of his administration say they are 'in charge.' Yet the administration also tells us that BP has the responsibility for stopping the leak and for the cleanup -- but the company's every action has to be approved by the government. If you have noticed a lot of ambiguity in the statements of the government officials, that is because they want to be able to position themselves to take credit for whatever success occurs (no matter who is responsible for the success) yet be able to blame others for failure (if even their own). ... One, among several, major reasons government agencies tend not to perform as well as private ones is because often there is little or no accountability. Those in favor of bigger government are using BP as an example of why the private sector cannot be trusted and why we must have more government. However, they conveniently overlook the fact that everything BP did was overseen and approved by the U.S. government and that the reason BP and the other big oil companies are off drilling in mile-deep water is because this same government will not allow them to drill in closer-in, shallower water or on much of the land where large quantities of oil are known to exist (e.g., the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge) and where accidents could be handled quickly and with little damage. BP stockholders are being severely punished because of the failure of BP's management to prevent this crisis -- and you can bet many heads will roll at BP. Yet how many heads will roll in the U.S. government, which had the responsibility to make sure BP operated safely and that the beaches and marshes were protected?" --Cato Institute senior fellow Richard W. Rahn

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

County commissioners voted unanimously to give their emergency management team the power to take whatever action it deems necessary to prevent oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill from entering Choctawhatchee Bay through the East Pass.

That means the team, led by Public Safety Director Dino Villani, can take whatever action it sees fit to protect the pass without having its plans approved by state or federal authorities.

Commission chairman Wayne Harris said he and his fellow commissioners made their unanimous decision knowing full well they could be prosecuted for it.

“We made the decision legislatively to break the laws if necessary. We will do whatever it takes to protect our county’s waterways and we’re prepared to go to jail to do it,” he said.

It's good to see some politicians pretending to have balls. You and I both know that if public sentiment wasn't in their favor, these guys would've just sat on their hands.

Devastating hurricanes like Katrina are unpreventable natural events. But man-made catastrophes created by Big Government’s bureaucratic incompetence, regulatory inefficiency and political infighting don’t have to occur. How much more damage has to be inflicted on the people, economy and environment of Louisiana before Washington gets the message?

This has now travelled to my home territory on Okaloosa Island, no more swimming, Oil has been found on the beaches, the economy will tank, the Obama legacy will live forever as a failed and incompetent flag ship for 100 years.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

1. Banning objects doesn't work. If people get a mad on and decide to off some folks, nothing is going to stop them. If they can't get a gun, they'll make a bomb. If they can't get a bomb, they'll run amok in a classroom or train car with a cooking implement. It's a punk's game and you can't win it.

2. Group punishment is not something that applies to free adults. Unless you are in Cell Block D, Mrs. Krabapple's third grade classroom, or Recruit Training Platoon 101, then punishing, penalizing, or in any way inconveniencing Person A for the malfeasance of Person B is a BS non-starter, okay?

3. Lastly, contrary to the maundering of that idiot Limey poet, I am an island; get it? There are quite literally billions of individuals on this planet whose demise would not diminish me, (or you, for that matter) in the slightest. If anything, going into spasms of hand-wringing and what-shall-we-do? over the death of someone you never met and never would have met actually strikes me as a little disrespectful to the people who actually were diminished by their death.